


Ashes among the Stars

by KenshinSusano



Series: Emblazoned into Stardust [1]
Category: Star Fox Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Content Warnings: PTSD, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Past Relationship(s), Slow Build, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:28:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28675239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KenshinSusano/pseuds/KenshinSusano
Summary: Something wasn't quite right in the system. A shaky peace had fallen over the Lylat system, but Fox knew that one thing could send it crashing to the ground. A mission will change his life, whether he wants it to or not. It's up to Fox to make the decision on if it's for better or for worse. Will everything be lost, or will this be a chance to rebuild? Time will tell, as they've learned again and again.Note on trigger warning tags: It isn't an intention to try to trigger them, but I feel it necessary to make them known as they aren't bits that can simply be skipped over. I will do my best to not dive into them deep enough to hurt anyone, but they are integral parts to the whole.
Relationships: Fox McCloud/Wolf O'Donnell
Series: Emblazoned into Stardust [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107467
Comments: 10
Kudos: 35





	1. The signs we see are much nearer than the stars

**Author's Note:**

> Well it's been a while since I've posted anything and I'm sorry for that for anyone that follows me. Consider this a reboot of The Futures We Leave. I wasn't satisfied where it was going and with my writing at the time, and I'm working this new story in a direction I can be more confident in. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading.

Fox sighed as he leaned against the railing of the balcony to the small cottage that used to belong to his father on the outskirts of the city, the familiar buzz of hovercars and monorails buried under the crushing isolation of the small forest around the building. The stars in the sky burned brightly overhead, the moon dimly glowing down on the vulpine as he stared out over the grounds of what used to be his family's summer home lost in thought. The events of the afternoon replayed in his mind in a loop, the words of the fortune teller Krystal had convinced him to go to for fun ringing in his ears. _You will receive a great blessing in love and business, if you can only make it through the crushing darkness ahead._ It was such a vague statement, he never trusted these 'psychics' not like he trusted Krystal's' proven ability, but something about it clung to his thoughts far longer than it should have. At this point, he should be charging the fortune teller rent for occupying his thoughts for this long, but then he would have to deal with the vixen's teasing that he let the words get to him.

His communicator was opened and he dialed the first number that came to mind, preparing himself for the hologram materializing in front of him. Krystal's face appeared before him, glowing blue in the projection as she took a moment to gather her bearings to look at him and not his own projection on the other side. “Fox, to what do I owe the pleasure of a call this late at night?” She could see right through him, dropping the usual pleasantries she would reserve for the others in the team. “Are you still shaken by earlier?”

“Shaken? Me? No way, must have me confused for another fox you know.” He laughed, rolling his eyes at the vixen.

“Sure, that's why you're calling me near midnight. You're lucky I wasn't asleep or busy.”

“Busy this late at night? I'm not sure I want to know what could keep you that busy.”

“Oh you know, all the late night lovers I've taken.” Fox gaped, gears turning in his head as he listened to Krystal laugh at his expense. “Oh come on Fox, I know that wasn't enough to melt your brain.”

“Jeez, Krystal trying to give me a heart attack? I'm used to that kind of talk from Falco, not you.” He scowled, crossing his arms across his chest with a huff of indignation. “Sorry if I'm bothering you, I just didn't know who else I could talk to about this kind of stuff. You could say that that fraud still said something to get to me though. Don't tell the others though.”

Krystal laughed, the normal melodic, light laughter he had learned long ago was fake replaced with a louder bark of amusement. “Oh really? Mr. Golden-Boy afraid of a love life?”

“Well considering what happened last time, I wouldn't exactly say that love and I have much of a working relationship.” he sighed, averting his gaze from the vixen on the line. They had made amends a year ago for everything that happened, but he couldn't help from feeling guilty for everything that she had gone through because of his callousness.

“That's the truth.” She laughed, hiding her face behind her hands in a mimicry of politness. “But I wouldn't let that color any future relationships you know. I figured you'd be more stuck on the 'Crushing darkness ahead' statement, to be honest. If Falco found out you were worrying about this he'd call you a dumb schoolgirl.”

“I'm hanging up, You're having too much fun at my expense.” Fox made a show of going to disconnect the call, scowling at the vixen in mock-annoyance.

“Please, you're the one that called me. I have every right to make fun of you, Fox.” she grinned, shifting on the projection enough that fox could see her leaning back in a chair. Falco was really becoming a bad influence on her if she was copying the way he sat at their team meetings. “But seriously, don't let it bother you. You said it yourself, she's probably a fraud fishing for things that are painted on your face.”

“And relationships are just painted on my face?!” He asked, incredulous to the implications.

“Well not specifically relationships, you know those are the easiest things to pry into someone about. Probably just took a lucky guess. Anyway I've got to head off, I honestly should have been sleeping before you called, but just couldn't with all the noise.”

“Yeah, It's good to talk to you like this again Krystal.” He nodded, giving a half-hearted wave as her face disappeared from the air in front of him, leaving him alone with his thoughts once again. “Why is this bothering me so much?” he asked the air around him, falling back into the chair on the balcony with a groan, hands covering his face in frustration.

A strong wind blew, making him shiver and cementing his decision to call it a night. He was asleep a few minutes after hitting the pillow.

“ _You will receive a great blessing in love and business, if you can only make it through the crushing darkness ahead.” He was back in the fortune tellers room, with no memory as to how he had gotten here. He should have still been in his fathers cottage, he knew something was off but couldn't quite put his finger on it. The graying stoat in front of him spoke again, the words burning into his ears. “You can't keep running away from your problems Fox.” her voice echoed until his head swam, ears ringing. The stoats green eyes stared right at him, unblinking, unfazed at the vulpines discomfort. The echoes swelled and melded together, becoming deeper and deeper until the voices were unrecognizable, distorted._

“ _In Love and War, it's do or Die. Keep up Pup.” He felt like he was drowning, the walls closing in around him, as the voices mixed and formed into one barely recognizable in his struggling. Pressure built around his chest, threatening to squeeze his heart and lungs out of his throat in his wild flailing to free himself from the unseen assailant. He tried to force himself to wake up, sure he was in a dream now, to no avail. Gasping for air he reached out, wordlessly begging someone, anyone, to save him from this sinking feeling. A pair of violet eyes shone through the darkness at last, a hand grabbing his own and pulling._

He jumped up, catapulting himself into an upright position, gasping and clutching his chest. He blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the thin red line in his vision as if he had looked too long at one of the fluorescent lights on the Great Fox. He Sighed, taking out the notebook in the night stand and opening it to a free page. Peppy had suggested a dream journal some years ago, as a way to make sense of the stress and ramifications of the Wars, and he hadn't stopped writing in his since. It helped to make sense of what was going on in his life, even if he didn't quite know how to interpret everything there was always some sort of pattern in his dreams.

His alarm buzzed on the nightstand after a few moments, snapping him out of his thoughts as he read over his writings and decided to get on with his day. Too many meetings and advertisements to deal with for his liking lately as Corneria tried to push for more colonization throughout the system, but they paid decent money and he still needed to repair the Great Fox after the Aparoid Incident.

A chime broke him out of his thoughts again, catching himself doing that far more than usual lately, as he went about making breakfast. Cheap powdered eggs and instant oatmeal with a cheap coffee substitute since he forgot to get his brand on his way over. Fox checked his new message, a piece of toast hanging out the corner of his mouth as he chewed slowly. **Unknown number: Help.** His chest tightened, staring at the odd message on his screen, unsure what to make of what had to have been a prank. A pair of violet eyes flashed through his mind once again, the vulpine shaking his head to clear his thoughts before deleting the cryptic message from the unknown prankster.

* * *

The ride to the Cornerian Government Building wasn't long, Fox grateful that he had his fathers old flybike in the cottage so he could feel the wind whipping through his fur on the near empty roadways. It wasn't quite the thrill of the impact of launching from a hanger before the G-Diffusers took away the rush, or the intensity of a dogfight where neither pilot gave even an inch. _Like Wolf._ He caught himself thinking as he looked up to the bright blue sky when he pulled up to the building housing Peppy's office. The hare had called him after his ad shoot to inform him he had a mission for the team, the first one in some time since the unsteady peace blanketed the galaxy after the Aparoid invasion, so his spirits were high. Fox looked forward to getting back in his arwing, the emptiness of space around him with nothing but the rush of flying to keep him company.

The doors slid open quietly, the calico at the front desk greeting him cheerily as he waved, showing his credentials to her before passing the security gate. Having been teammates with the new general had it's perks, as he didn't have to leave his blaster or knife at the security desk, with his government status as a contracted employee despite still holding title as mercenary. He stepped into the express lift, swiping a keycard to instruct it to take him to the executive office. The ride was smoother than he expected, floors zipping by quickly as he ascended the building towards the hare's floor, doors opening sooner than expected as well as the elevator dinged to alert him to reaching his destination. A canary sat at a large desk as the doors opened, giving the vulpine a gentle smile as he waved. “Hey Celica. I'm guessing I'm the only one that's shown up yet?”

The avian nodded, gesturing with her eyes to the door behind her, the ornate wood carved in a facsimile of a mural of Corneria's history. “I thought he told you that you were the only one he invited here. I don't show the rest of Star Fox on the expected visitors.” Fox tilted his head some in curiosity, it wasn't like the hare to offer him a mission without bringing the rest of the team in. His knuckles rapped on the door, echoing in the spacious lobby for a few moments before a call of 'Come In' rang from behind the wood. It swung open easily, revealing the gray muzzle of the hare smiling at him over the rims of his glasses as he set down a folder he was reading.

“Fox it's good to see you. How have you been? I've seen some of the recruiting ads you've put out.” The hare chuckled as the vulpine's ears flattened a bit at the mention of the advertisements.

“Damn and here I was hoping you wouldn't see those.” He sighed, taking a seat in front of Peppy's desk. “I'm kinda surprised though that you called me here without the rest of the team though.”

Peppy's nose twitched in that way Fox found out meant he was having a debate with himself in his head. “Ah, I guess I did forget to mention that to you. Must have slipped my mind in the middle of everything.” he chuckled with a slight shrug. “Well the thing is, I kind of wanted your opinion on it before I sent Star Fox to investigate. The heads of the other military branches are sticklers for doing things their way, so I need to know if my gut feeling has any base before I send a mercenary group out under their noses.” The hare took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slightly.

“So you're wanting to know if I think it's worth checking out, whatever it is, so you can piss off the rest of the admirals?” he laughed, grinning at the hare's eyes rolling at him. “I'm all for pissing off the chain of command. What's got you worked up old man?”

“Old man? I don't want to hear that from you. I'm barely 50.” Those brown eyes glared at him, despite the playful glint behind them. “The thing is, we've had a few supply ships disappear from Sector Y on the way to Katina. Normally we wouldn't have to go through there, but with the gateway unusable the ships have to go around the Meteo belt through the sector to get to Katina.” He explained as Fox opened his mouth to interject. “Now I know what you're thinking, and I'm well aware of it's name as the Ship Graveyard, but our new supply ships aren't susceptible to the radiation and magnetic storms like they used to be. Plus There's no distress signal, no wreckage, nothing. It's as if the ships just vanished mid-flight.”

“Could it be possible that someone managed to sneak on board and take out the crew and pilot it somewhere else?” Fox knew that his suggestion sounded far fetched even for him. No one he knew could sneak aboard a military ship in mid flight without the sensors picking up on it, nor would one person be able to take out an entire crew with no alarm raised. Even Leon wouldn't be able to pull that off without extreme luck on his side and he was the craftiest he'd ever met back in the war.

“Judging by the look on your face even you don't believe your suggestion. Admiral Welters suggested freak warp accidents during course adjustment but 5 times in one month seems a little more than just a 'mere circumstance' let alone with any personnel going radio silent.” Peppy scoffed, pushing the folder in front of him across the desk for Fox to pick up.

Inside were papers detailing the missing ships, carrying cargo, provisions, building materials, weapons, and new recruits for training on the Katinian military base. Only the weapons would stand out to be worth the trouble of drawing the defense force's ire for any pirates in the area, if they even tried to assault a convoy in the first place. Fox's fur bristled, something about this whole situation didn't set well with him, but he couldn't place his finger on it. “Rumors in the brass are that Star Wolf was reported in the area lately, but there's been no evidence on it, and even then they haven't raided our convoys in the past year so I doubt it's their doing.” Fox's heart raced for some reason, the faint feel of someone pressed back to back as a ring of blaster fire echoed in his ears before it vanished.

“This doesn't sound like their M.O either. Since the Aparoids they've been criminals but only in the vaguest sense of the word. They've been undermining the other crime bosses for the last year, so I don't see them risking this shaky truce just to score some rations and building materials.” Fox grumbled, sinking back in his chair. Peppy's eyes bore into him, that fatherly tendency to know just what he was thinking was uncanny at times.

“Exactly, I think the admirals are trying to place the blame on Star Wolf since they think they're an easy targe because of the Lylat Wars. Don't worry, I'm not going to let them pin it on Wolf and his team. They don't deserve it after their help.” He added after he saw Fox deflate a bit in his seat. “So I'm guessing you agree that Star Fox should check it out before we send an armada out to nothing?”

Fox nodded, tapping his chin in thought as he mulled over the information presented to him. “Yeah. I'll let the team know. “

“I'll write up the contract. We can talk pay once we figure out exactly how dangerous this could be.”

“Yeah.”

“Fox...Thanks for your help.” The hare smiled at him, although it seemed like he wanted to say something else, but their meeting ended with a “Be Careful.” From Peppy as the vulpine gave a mock salute before leaving the building.

The hare sent a message over comms, informing him of the requisitioned command ship for their use. He made a note of their departure time and sent a message to the rest of the team. **Guys we got a mission. We leave in a couple of days to Sector Y. Meet at the spaceport 0700.**

A tone alerted him to another message, he didn't expect his team to reply that fast, normally Krystal's the first to respond and even then it takes her a few minutes. He tapped the new message notification and nearly dropped his communicator.

**Unknown Number: James help me. I need you.**


	2. A Fine, Fine Line

The water rushed over him as he laid out, the pool on Sargasso station pleasantly warm running through his fur. Wolf let out a long sigh as he heard the door open, the familiar heavy bootsteps of his teammate echoing off the tile of the rec room. He made no show of modesty at the felines scoff at his bare figure. “Look, if you didn't want to see me naked don't interrupt when I'm in the pool.” He laughed at the scowl on Panther's face.

“Wolf, please this is a public place.” Panther rolled his eyes, turning away from Wolf as he floated atop the water. “We've got an issue.”

“If this is what you call an issue then I don't give a fuck.” Wolf snorted, rolling his good eye as he waved a hand in the air to signal the feline to continue.

“You know that's not-”

“Yeah yeah get on with it.”

“Right, nudity aside, Romme has caught wind of a new group of raiders hiding out on an old Science Station in Sector Y on the edge of the Meteo belt.” Panther pulled up a holomap and held it out for Wolf to see, the spot in the space of the sector with one of Andross' old research facilities magnified. The projection shifted to a recording, a few small carriers docking near the station as a handful of fighters swept into the bays.

“And we should care why?” The lupine scoffed, treading water towards the steps as his relaxation was cut short. “Not like they're doing anything that could get the CDF called in on us so why should it be our issue to deal with?”

“That's just the thing. Romme mentioned too that several Cornerian supply convoys have disappeared from the area. It's only a matter of time before their brass decide that it's our fault and send an armada here to take us out.” Dammit, he hated when the panther made sense. He stepped under the dryers, letting the heated air blow out his fur as he used the moment to think.

“Shit, I guess you've got a point there. What else does the dog say?” he scowled, pulling his pants on with a grunt as he had to make himself at least modest to leave. As amusing as it would be to see the looks on everyone's face walking around as naked as he was born, he did still have images to uphold. Can't have the 'Illustrious Lord O'Donnell' baring it all to all the scum on the station, as much as he would love to see the handful of aneurysms that it would cause among some of the more opinionated crowd. “Seems like he's a font of knowledge of this new problem.”

Panther sighed, turning to face the lupine with a scowl across his muzzle. Those piercing yellow eyes regarded him a few seconds longer than he felt comfortable dealing with as Wolf turned away, running his hands through the shaggy strip of fur atop his head. “What's that look for?”

“Look? I'm merely contemplating how to respond. He is kind of our head of intelligence.” The feline ran his hand over his muzzle with a sigh. “I'm not sure if I believe that you forgot or that you just don't like him.”

“Don't like him? Hell, if you haven't noticed I don't like a vast majority of the people that work for me, Panther. Everyone here's always have a day from digging a knife into your back for glory and to pay off a debt.” Wolf growled, slipping his gloves on and making his way to the door, hearing Panther easily fall into step beside him.

“That may be true but he is still more important to our plans than say, Wicker or Gil.”

“Yeah and I'm guessing he also suggested I go check it out alone?” Panther's step haltered before catching up again. “See, I'm sure he's hoping I get offed going out there so his squirrely ass can plant it in my throne before it's even cold.”

“I think you give him too much credit sometimes.” Panther sighed, as Wolf glared a pack of cats out of his way, clearly too amped up on the latest local fix to have the sense to move faster. Sargasso wasn't pretty by any standards, and the local residents and their habits didn't help his mood. His communicator beeped with a message, flashing the notification up on his implant display. He made a motion to open it, despite the unknown number as it could be one of their agents in the field with a burner. **Unknown number: Help.**

The message was enough to make him pause in his blistering pace towards his 'chambers' as the rest of the crew liked to call them. It was really just a place aside from his bedroom that he could get work done for the station, but people started assuming it was his headquarters and he stuck with it. Panther noticed, a look flashing across his face he couldn't quite describe. “Did something happen? Did your brain finally melt?” he smirked, that teasing tone back with a vengance.

“No you dipshit. Weird message from an unknown number. Don't think it was one of our guys though, they'd use the codes.” He scowled, removing the message from his history and continuing his way to the elevators. “Call Romme to my office so we can talk about this whole mess.” he ordered before pressing the button to his chambers. On the way up he flicked through message after message, order lists, manifestos, business to take care of when he had more time, and business he found a way to never have the time to deal with all screamed for his attention but he couldn't give it to them.

“Shit, if they are trying to target Cornerian fleets, it'll just start up another war. I'll need to deal with this fast.” He sighed, rubbing the side of his face with a groan. “And now I'm talking to myself. Great. Get it together O'donnell.” The reflection of the wolf in the metal doors across from him looked too disheveled, too withered compared to his prime. Wolf scowled at his reflection, fingers rubbing at his temples as he let out a long-suffering sigh. _Damn what's gotten into me?_ His thoughts rolled around in his head, as he strolled out of the elevator to drop down roughly into the seat in the spacious room he called his 'office' that used to be a gym. He had it converted to his workspace once he realized how much more vulnerable the large open space made his visitors feel, and used that to his advantage egregiously. Papers piled on his desk and spilled off onto the floor, a messy stack of authorizations that he still had to sign off on for repairs, provisions, expansions, and new outposts.

The door to his office swung open after a single knock, the hunched over figure of the schnauzer walked in leisurely, supporting himself with an old, gnarled wooden cane. The canine took a seat in front of Wolf's desk, fingers templed atop the knob of his cane as he waited for the lupine to speak the first word. “So, Tell me about the shit going down in Sector Y and why I should give a fuck?”

“Ah I figured that's what you called me here to talk about.” Wolf shot him a look of annoyance.

“If you had an idea then open with it, or don't waste my time.”

“Yes sir, noted. Anyway, there's reports from some of our agents that a new independent group of raiders has set up in the old research base in the area. Normally this wouldn't raise too many eyebrows or concerns except that Kiyo mentioned that Corneria was sending convoys through the sector with the loss of the Orbital gate using small scale warp.” The schnauzer started, unfazed by Wolf's scowl.

“And of course Corneria thinks that any pirates are us.”

“Exactly. I'd suggest sending a welcome party if you want to maintain your image and keep the CDF off your back myself. It's entirely possible Corneria may also chalk the disappearances up to the sector's history but I doubt it. Their ships are too new to be dragged down the way they used to.”

“Wasn't that place called the Ship Graveyard back before the war?” Wolf pinched the bridge of his nose, willing the pounding in his head to go away. He fished out a pack from his vest pocket, pulling out one of the cigarettes and lighting it quickly to take a long drag. Smoke wisped from between his teeth as he took a moment to consider his options, ignoring the frown from the canine on the other side of his desk.

“Yes it was, radiation storms and electromagnetic interference tended to shut down navigations and pirates ran rampant before.” He could see the schnauzer squirm in his seat from the smoke drifting in his direction, giving Wolf a sense of amusement at the canines discomfort. All the more reason to keep smoking, he believed, if it could get under someone's skin. He shifted, propping his feet up on the desk as he leaned back in his chair on two legs.

“So we go in, storm these new fuckers, and hope that solves the problem? Are we even sure this new group of nitwits are the ones that are taking the convoys?”

“Therein lies the problem, sir. We've had drones recording from a safe distance and no Cornerian ships were documented docking at their base.” Wolf blinked, arms crossing across his chest.

“Now something's not making sense here then.” He spoke, more at the canine than _to_ him as he spoke his thoughts aloud. There was a growing unease with every piece of information about the situation given to him that he was trying to put a name to; it was driving him mad with a mix of curiosity at a much more interesting puzzle to solve than Johnny's messed up coke deal, and irritation that this was definitely a matter he had to stick his nose into as no one else could be trusted to take care of it like he could. “So it sounds to me like they have nothing much else to go on other than ships simply not making it to their destination. Don't they consider that their crews may have just gotten lost?”

“Ah, I did forget to mention something.” Romme spoke up, wilting a bit under the sudden glare from Wolf. “Sorry.” He apologized quickly under the burning glower. “Kiyo also mentioned that from what he's managed to gather around the meetings concerning the matter that the ships never raised an SOS.”

Wolf closed his eyes, feeling the pieces of the puzzle rattling around as he counted up to ten before leveling his steely gaze at the canine. He took a sick pleasure in watching the dog shrink back into his chair, tail tucked between his legs. “So you waited until I thought I had it figured out to give me this information. I thought you were supposed to be my Spymaster, not holding information from me.” A whimper confirmed his suspicions.

“My apologies, Lord O'Donnell.” his knuckles were white on the top of his cane, shaking slightly under the tight grip he held on the wood. “It had slipped my mind, as Kiyo had only mentioned it recently.” That didn't help alleviate the scowl on the lupines snout, fangs gleaming in the dim lighting as the red cherry of his cigarette flared with another long slow drag.

“I'm going to go check it out, and if I find even a hair of your wrinkly old ass on my chair I'm spacing you so fast you'll get to feel what it's like to have every vessel in your lungs burst, you hear me?” He growled out, claws flexing in irritation as they scraped against the arms of his seat. He made a dismissive wave, turning to gaze out of the window into the emptiness of space. The shimmering stars always helped him piece together his thoughts, hearing the door slide closed behind Romme. “God I can't stand him.” he growled out, fist slamming into the side of the wall. The doors opened again and he whipped around to yell at the dog before he realized his visitor. “Panther.”

“I see Romme just left. Did he give you what he knew?”

“Yeah, of course he tried to leave choice bits out until the end of our conversation.” He pinched the bridge of his nose again, feeling a migraine coming.

“That sounds like him though to be honest. So what's the verdict? Are we gallavanting to the other side of the Meteo belt to take care of some rogue pirates?” Panther looked almost amused, a gleam in his eyes that Wolf hadn't seen since the Aparoid invasion.

“No we're just going to let Corneria get the wrong idea and take it as a tea party invitation.” He rolled his eyes.

A loud ringing sound slammed itself into his ears, deafening in it's intensity. He couldn't hear anything, by the way he could catch Panther's mouth moving but no words escaping unless the feline was dumbly mouthing at him. Wolf snarled and clutched the sides of his head, digging his fingers into his ears in an attempt to block out the high pitched whine overriding his senses. A thin red line flashed across his vision, gone in an instant as he managed to lean back against the wall to avoid collapsing from the pain. He was vaguely aware of Panther quickly striding over to check on him, snarling out at him to keep him from getting close with a “I'm fine. Of course we're going dipshit.”

The ringing stopped as suddenly as it came, leaving Wolf's head spinning as he held a hand over his eyes to block out the light. Panther's concern registered again as he rested with his back against the cold metal, taking solace in the way it soothed the burning in his head. “Don't worry about it. Been building up to a migraine all day, 'm fine, seriously.” he sighed, making his way to his desk and digging out some painkiller pills and downing them quickly. Wolf turned back to the transparisteel overlooking the stars, hands shoved in his pockets as he scoffed to himself. “We're going tomorrow.”

Two pools of emerald stared back at him from the reflection, making his hackles stand straight up as an unknown uneasiness settled in the pit of his stomach. They were gone by the time he had wiped his hand across his muzzle to clear his thoughts. _Fox I hope you're not getting involved in this. I don't know if I can protect you from whatever this is._ He found himself thinking out of left field, unsure why Lylat's Golden-Boy suddenly made his way into his thoughts. It took a moment, but soon enough those thoughts were crammed right back under the rug they were swept under before, unable to shake the feeling of a hand on his cheek until his feet were out of his door and he was headed to the hangar bay.

The familiar shape of the wolven over him as he performed his cursory checks was a comforting one, his constant companion through thick and thin and all the things he's had to handle in life since the war. Heavy, uneven steps alerted him to another presence in the hangar bay as he slid out to level a gaze in the direction of the intruder into his personal space. When his head cleared the underside of the wolven to find the perpetrator he was met with nothing but air, empty space all around. No footsteps, nobody to be seen anywhere despite the closeness of the heavy thuds a moment earlier. Wolf felt his fur stand on end. “If this is a prank, and I find you you're gonna wish whatever drugs you're on are stronger, jackass.” he yelled, voice echoing in the empty docks. Silence met his threats, the lupine deciding to return to his work before his stress made him start imagining things more. As soon as his back hit the creeper a chill washed over him. A voice spoke in his ear, familiar and unnerving.

“ **Wolf help me. I need you.”**


	3. I'm trying to breathe but it's painful here.

The new ship was phenomenal, to say the least, with state of the art everything at the military's expense. Fox was almost overwhelmed with how nice everything was when the doors to the loading bay opened, the large common area on the command craft dwarfing his expectations from his old cruiser. The saber-tooth leading them along the quick tour explained the systems they didn't already know from the Great Fox.

“So here's the bridge, it's already registered to your Comms and your ROB unit.” The gray furred saber-tooth explained as the doors to the bridge whisked open, the golden robot rolling around within a comforting sight to the rest of the team. “He's already been updated with the codes and authorizations to access the ship like he was with the Great Fox so nothing to worry about there.” the feline chuckled as Slippy made his way to ROB with a greeting.

“Good morning, Fox. I am glad to be of service once more.” ROB spoke in his monotone, turning to face the crew to address them. Fox smiled as he gave a nod to the old companion.

“Same to you buddy, Glad to be flying with you again.” he chuckled, giving a playful salute to the robot who just raised his left arm stiffly in return. Their old co-pilot always had a way of seeming more alive than the other ROB units that he had the chance to meet, probably from having been with his father and Peppy for so long, or that advanced learning chip or whatever Slippy called it that he found during one of his tune ups.

“So what's the living quarters like on this thing? Hopefully we're not packed like rations like we were.” Falco piped up from behind Fox, arms crossed over his chest as he took a look around the bridge with an uninterested frown. Fox knew he tended to stay away from the bridge as much as possible to avoid the trouble of listening to Peppy and Slippy talking about the usual technbabble things required to keep the ship adrift.

“Ah, I figured you would ask that. Let me show you.” The saber-tooth had way too much pep for someone working at Space Dynamics compared to Fox's experience with the rest of the team he usually worked with. They were led to the lower floor, the vulpine almost recoiling at just how much larger everything was compared to what he was used to, the crew quarters easily able to hold 10 people with room to spare and only one to a room. He quickly claimed the biggest room, using his usual justification as captain to the rest of the team's chagrin and groans, ignoring the middle finger from Falco as usual.

“Abilon, What's the current status of takeoff?” The saber-tooth asked as they walked along getting used to their new base of operations for the mission under way.

An artificial voice different than ROB's spoke from around the group. “Fuel levels at 100% capacity, Payload Fraction within optimal variables. Arwing bays secured and loaded. Munitions photon cells fully charged. Ready to depart.”

“Thank you A.N.A.” The saber-tooth nodded before turning back to Fox. “Artificial Nautical Assistant, but we call her Ana. Well captain she's all yours. Best of luck.” he held out a hand which Fox took in his own with a firm shake. A chill ran up Fox's spine and he turned to try to figure out why he was feeling watched suddenly, seeing nothing but his reflection in the transparisteel window. Krystal shot him a concerned look when he caught her in the corner of his eyes, shaking his head at her sure that she had felt his sudden spike in adrenaline.

The crew made their way to the bridge to set their destinations, engines firing up and the horizon of Corneria slowly shrinking out of view until nothing was left but the new emptiness of space as the planet was left behind. “Current time until arrival at set coordinates: 6 Cornerian hours.” ROB's voice chimed as he took over the autopilot, engaging the sub-light engines with a rumble through the ship.

“Well guess that means we have time to get situated better.” Fox called with a clap of his hands from the captains chair, as the rest of the team started filing out of the bridge. Fox stayed behind a moment to watch the stars from the windows, enjoying the emptiness spread out in front of him. “Never get tired of this view.” he spoke to no one in particular, his tail lazily swishing behind him as he let his thoughts drift. A flash of violet caught his attention, flitting out of direct line of sight but lingering in his peripheral. “The hell?!”

“Is everything okay?” He heard Krystal call from the doorway, poking her head back in to check on their captain. He waved a hand in response, turning around to face the blue fox.

“Yeah, think I'm just seeing things.” Fox sighed, walking along the observation balcony down towards the door to escape the feeling of being watched once again.

* * *

“So we were coming around this curve going wicked fast and this asshole just tries to sideswipe me off the gravtrack like _boom!_ ” Falco was regaling Slippy and Krystal in the mess hall with his recent exploits in the G-Zero circuit. Fox knew he was doing the high speed races in their down time since the wars had ended, with nothing for a mercenary to do having hobbies helped the days stop from blurring together. _If only I'd managed to find a hobby of my own, maybe I wouldn't be going crazy and seeing things._ He thought as he munched on a protein bar, chewing slowly as he took small sips of the tea Krystal had prepared for them and enjoying the hint of mint under lemon and ginger.

She had given him another one of her looks when he had entered, handing him the cup with a subtle hint of 'we can talk about it if you want.' that she always had the habit of giving when he was obviously on edge. Fox gave another slight shake of his head in response, appreciating her ever present sense of their emotions, even if it sometimes got under his skin with how little tact she had with it sometimes.

“...right Fox?” Fox caught, blinking as he realized that he was now the center of attention.

“What? Sorry, had something on my mind.”

“Obviously, I've never seen you go that space-cadet since the actual space cadet years.” Falco ribbed with a grin.

“Har har, clever. Original. Daring even.” Fox rolled his eyes at the pheasant as he finished his drink, setting the cup in the dishwasher after rinsing. “Like I said, something on my mind. Nothing to worry about.” He added seeing the look Krystal gave him again. “I think I'm going to go take a nap. Didn't sleep well last night.”

The rest of the crew waved him out of the mess hall, leaving him alone as his thoughts turned to both the mission they were about to fly blind into and the pit of uncertainty that lingered in his gut over what had to be a missing piece of the puzzle.

The whisking of the door opening to his quarters snapped him out of his thoughts, wholly unaware he had reached his destination so suddenly as buried in his own head as he was. Fox laid back on the bed after tugging off his boots, sighing heavily as he sunk into it. The steady thrum of the engines ran through the hull – like waves of an ocean of stars lulling him into the arms of slumber – as he pulled out his communicator.

The message from the unknown number remained at the top of his list, still unread and bothering him in that innocuous way that only sent him deeper down the mystery hole. It's contents buried and wormed their way deep into his head, a nagging thread tugging at a missing piece of the larger picture. He could feel himself fighting the weight of his eyelids, sleep taking him as he puzzled over what his father had to do with this.

_Eyes opened into darkness in every direction, the only light available was a small circle around his feet. A low growl caused his hackles to raise quickly, whirling towards the source of the danger, only to be met with more emptiness. A hand twitched towards his hip, searching for the familiar handle of his blaster. The ground under his feet pulsated, swelled, and started to swallow his boots, despite his desperate struggle to free himself. It pulled him deeper and deeper, threatening to crush his waist, his chest, and now his ribs. A hand extended, a quiet plea for someone – anyone – to come save him. The bubbling mass closed around his throat, up his chin as he struggled harder, breath squeezed out of his lungs by the ravenous darkness._

_A firm hand gripped his, claws digging into his arm with a pull, altogether familiar and reassuring. The darkness gave way, sinking back into the endless abyss as the landscape changed. A pit formed in his gut as the feeling of solid ground beneath his feet was ripped away suddenly, left dangling in the air by his 'savior'_

“ _This is the end then.” A deep voice resonated throughout his body, vision blurring with the stinging pinpricks of tears on the edge of his sight._

_The hand let go, dropping him to the ground, wind rushing through his fur as the figure above him shrunk faster and faster. He made a last desperate reach for safety, fingers clutching around a piece of fur in the freefall._

“ _Take care you don't die alone, Fox.”_

Fox woke with a start, blinking fast and bringing his hands up to his wet cheeks. A knock on the door drew his attention as he rubbed at his eyes. “One second.”

“Take your time.” It was Krystal's voice on the other side.

Fox made sure he was presentable, before his eyes fell on the tuft of gray fur perched on his pillow then shoving the handful of questions to the back of his mind. He was sure that Krystal had felt whatever he was dreaming about and wanted to come check on him, she had that knack of knowing just when and where to be. “Okay, come on in.” He had half a mind to tell her he's fine and not to worry, but stopped himself when guilt got the better of him, he owed her as much.

She stepped into the room, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him and he was glad he let her in. Krystal pressed a shoulder against him, their unspoken signal that he wasn't alone. “I guess I had this coming.” he chuckled after a moment of comfortable silence.

Graciously, she merely offered him a reassuring smile where others would have given him a lecture. “I wouldn't say that.” Her voice was quiet, a calm in the storm of his tumultuous emotions.

“You can't say I don't deserve a hard time though.” He sighed, running a hand through the white stripe of fur between his ears. Her blue eyes looked right through him, through the guilt and shame and the walls he put up to the rest of the team.

“You're right on that front.” If it were anyone else he was sure the venom dripping from that statement would have stopped his heart where he sat. For her it was just a icy dagger in an old wound. Her hand rested on his knee, making him still his fidgeting. “But, we can revisit that conversation again some other time.”

His mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to find the right response but falling short each and every attempt. Krystal shook her head, draping herself backwards on the bed, legs crossing over one another before Fox joined her.

“What was it about?” Her voice broke the silence once again.

“I don't remember.” A lie. He couldn't forget.

“Try again, Fox.”

“I...don't know how to put it into words.” Not technically a lie, in his mind.

“Clearly not your strongest suit.”

“So I've been told.” He didn't put up a fight, she didn't deserve one. His tail flicked under him, trying to piece together the words he could. “It was a...fresher mistake.”

She didn't push it, which he was thankful for. “You should talk about it sometime. If not to me then someone else.” _Not like I have someone else anymore._ His mind so _helpfully_ chimed in.

He felt the bed shift, Krystal getting up and patting his leg gently before leaving the room with the hiss of the door sealing behind her. The silence was deafening, filling the void again quickly. He picked up his comm-unit again, listlessly scrolling through old messages until his fingers hovered over one. The old conversation opened, the last message a shared picture of himself and the most dangerous criminal in the system, not a care in the world.

He typed out a message, fingers hovering over the send button, the same song and dance he's done every day since then. **I'm sorry.** The words he could never get out; the sting of defeat he couldn't fly away from, sabotaged by his own faults and misgivings.

ROB's voice chimed over the intercoms. “Unidentified Anomaly at destination.”

Fox stood up, communicator stowed in his pocket, message untouched as he steeled himself once again. The mission came first, he could wallow in his memories later. The team didn't need him emotional or distant, not when they knew nothing of the matter at hand. He made his way to the bridge, odd dreams, tough conversations, and misery stowed into the corners of his mind once more.

“What in the hell is that?” Nothing could have prepared him for the sight on the other side of the transparisteel. A mangled heap of a starship, easily three or four times bigger than a Triumphant class dreadnought by virtue of the rainbow of crystallized mass fusing hulls together from several frigates. He could make out designs of Venomian, Aquassian, and Katinina ships, with something that vaguely resembled the ancient krazoa ruins on Sauria untouched by time.

A tense weight settled over the quartet on the bridge, air thick enough to be cut by a knife. The steady hum of the engines was as loud as an earthquake.

“Thats... Cerinian.” Krystal shattered the silence. He spared her a glance from the corner of his eye, not prepared for the tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

A warning flared up in the depths of his mind. This wasn't going to be an easy recon mission. He could taste the familiar iron of blood on his tongue, his fangs were digging into his lip out of anxious habit.

The forgotten comms-unit chimed, Words lighting up the screen under a flashing red line: _**Message sent.**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to keep a steady update schedule, luckily not much is keeping me from it other than my own head. I'm trusting those of you reading and enjoying this to try to hold me to at least a chapter a week if possible. I'm not sure how long I'm going to make this story, as I do plan to make it part of a larger saga. However, this fic for sure is going to be much more focused on the characters and their issues instead of on some sweeping space opera plot.


	4. Behind that starward gaze I know there's hope

Wolf relished being in the cockpit, nothing but the thrum of the G-Diffusers and the wolven's engines to keep him company. Panther certainly didn't mind his silence, if the feline's own lack of chatter was anything to go by. The pair of starfighters zipped across the edge of the Meteo belt, dipping into it to slingshot past the larger asteroids to get to their first outpost quicker. They could have taken one of the carriers to travel at nearlight, but Panther suggested using their wolvens in case the raider group had gotten the research stations radars up and running.

“ _So why not take a carrier to the edge of the possible radar sweep and deploy from there?” He had asked after Panther's suggestion, as he watched the rhino mechanic – Reggie if he remembered his name right – affix a few extra parts for the felines plan._

“ _It's one of Andross' old research stations. I wouldn't put it past him to have an abnormally wide-range radar to keep track of Cornerian forces in the sector.” The matter-of-fact reply would have normally irritated him, but he had to give his teammate credit: it was something the old bastard would do. “So I suggest we fly to Baron outpost and use the Accelerator there to close the distance without a noticeable radar profile.”_

It made the most sense at the time, and Wolf was grateful of the time it gave him to work over the never-ending puzzle tying up his thoughts. At first he toyed with the idea that the Cornerian convoys were sabotaged and collapsed with their warp drives, but that thought was scrapped with the notorious lack of wreckage from a backlash. A ping brought him back to the cockpit, Panther's comms opened as the feline was speaking, halfway through his words before Wolf came back to it.

“...a dozen klicks.” He caught the tail end, nodding as he filled in.

“Good, as much as I missed flying my legs are cramping.”

“Well you'll have plenty of time while we refuel for the jump.” Panther grinned, his usual stuffy persona stowed away in the confines of the ship and overtaken by the all too familiar excitement of a new mission that wasn't a routine call for the first time in almost a year.

“Now if only I had time to crank one off, I didn't get the chance to in the pool before I was interrupted.” he shot back with a bark of laughter at the disgusted look on his teammate's face.

“I'll pretend I didn't hear that.” Panther's voice deadpanned, a scowl crossing his muzzle before he rolled his eyes and it disappeared. Wolf always liked to try to get a rise from the normally unflappable cat – usually with less than stellar results – so he would take whatever victory on that front he could get. “Coming up on the outpost.” The line went dead, the blocky, misshapen satellite of the station looming closer and closer through the viewscreen of the cockpit as he opened a new comms channel.

“Baron outpost, Star Wolf initiating docking proceedures. Fire up the accelerator for us.” In an instant he was no longer Wolf O'Donnell the pilot, falling back into the persona of Lord O'Donnell of Sargasso.

“Aye Aye boss!” A weasel's face popped up on the comm, giving a quick two finger salute before the line cut to silence. The gates on the landing bay opened, the subtle ultraviolet glow of the photon cage beckoning the ships landing systems into a lazy arc into the hangar and settling on the metal docks. Air hissed as the seal released on the shielding of his cockpit, folding out and upward as he hopped out with a practiced ease. Two techs greeted him, dragging a large tanker on a gravlift to refuel their ships as Panther fell into step beside him.

Wolf made his way past security, grateful that someone on this station had the foresight to set up a bar near the hangar with his approval. He dropped down onto a stool, ignoring the wary glance from the coyote tending the counter and motioned for Panther to join him. The feline instead leaned against the counter, back resting against the edge and elbows propped up against the bar-top. “The usual?”

“Should you really be drinking anything before a mission?”

“My ship my rules.”

“Suit yourself. I decline.”

“More for me then. Strong Mead. Double dose. Spice.” The bartender acquiesced and soon enough the glass of golden liquid was passing his lips, burning on the way down, settling into a warmth in his gut.

“At least you've graduated from terrible whiskey they scrape from the old barrels.” Panther spoke after a moment, Wolf could feel those yellow eyes boring into his skull in an all-too-knowing way. He told himself he changed to mead to be able to drink more while getting less drunk as it was weaker than the swill he was drinking before, not technically a lie if he squinted hard enough at it.

Wolf took another long swig of his drink, letting himself get momentarily lost in the amber liquor and the sweet burn. Half his drink was gone in moments, he'd be feeling it as soon as he got back in the cockpit but the ghosts of his past were demanding his attention lately and this was the only way to quell their voices.

He turned to say something to Panther but stopped, mouth hanging open mid speech as he tried to process what he just saw. It felt like someone had just thrown a bucket of ice-cold water over him, shock melting to give way to a burning anger. Panthers voice registered in the back of his mind but his words were just noise to add to the growing flames. Wolf stood up from his seat, tipping the barstool over as he stalked after the figure he'd seen.

All he could ever catch were the fleeting glimpses of a golden white-tipped tail exiting the door, turning around a corner, down towards an alleyway. He shoved others out of his way, dimly aware of the scene he was causing as he hunted down his target. Around the corner behind the bar his trail ran cold, the golden fur nowhere to be seen, the dark passage's only occupants a small fennec with too-orange fur and a bull with their pants around their ankles and gaping at the intruder to their personal 'moment'. Wolf growled, turning on his heel quickly and storming back into the bar to Panther's confused tilt of his head.

“We're leaving.” He growled out, slapping a few bills on the counter-top for his now-forgotten drink and leaving the building. The emptiness of space was waiting for him, and he'd much rather deal with that than the implications that were starting to form once his rage had subsided.

The tech crew had finished refueling their ships, Wolf hopping into his without waiting for Panther as the cockpit lowered and sealed around him with the comforting hiss of the airtight seal forming. His comm-unit beeped, a message flashing on his implant that smacked him slack-jawed.

**Pup: I'm sorry.**

_Don't do anything stupid Fox. I'm not worth it._ He was dimly aware of his claws digging into the palms of his hands as he slammed the throttle forward the second he was given the green.

* * *

Panther wasn't sure what got into his partner judging by the way the wolven screamed as it took off like a demon, whipping around and shooting past the accelerator into the depths of space towards their destination. He had seen him in bad moods before even in the pilots seat, but whatever just caught his attention was pushing him past bad and right into foul. He sprinted to catch up, the wave of energy of the g-diffusion field washing over him by the time he got up to speed to make his own jump. The stars warped around his field of view, creating solid bars of light as the ship skipped across space and in any other moment he would admire the sights but all he could think of was Wolf's face etched into something he rarely saw on the lupine's features. Fear.

It could have been a few different things, with everything they have to deal with on the regular any normal person would have snapped far earlier than a whole year in. Wolf wasn't any normal person, which only made Panther far more curious as to what could evoke such a primal reaction. The star map blinked, updating with new information from their drones while they were in transit, a few extra pings of new ships showing up with each sweep. There was a rumble as his ship neared the destination, g-field beginning to dissipate as the starship slowed back to normal speeds from the warp-skip. He tried the comms for Wolf hopefully, the lupine refusing the call immediately and leaving the line dead. The feline racked his brain for the last time he had seen Wolf like this, only able to recall enough times to barely fill one hand, before an epiphany struck him.

“Could it be?” he asked the empty cockpit, aware of how ridiculous he would seem in any other circumstance. Something didn't add up and he would get to the bottom of it, if only to help his boss – no _friend_ – regain some sense of normalcy. He saw the crimson streak of the wolven shoot past him, almost as if searching for something.

Panther ran a deep scan as he slowed to an idle drift between a few small asteroids, using his Black Rose's enhanced suite to pick up whatever he couldn't see. They were a few dozen klicks away from the research station, so he didn't expect to pick up any large signatures but the sudden appearance of a large dot on the sweep where there was empty space a moment ago left his jaw dropping to the floor.

A forced line opened on his comms, denying Wolf the chance to ignore him. “Wolf! Calm down out of whatever freak out you're having and check this reading I'm sending you. I'm heading to investigate.” He cut the line, whether his leader wanted to join him or not was now in his court as he swiveled towards the signature and boosted toward it. A pit of dread formed in his stomach, the signature was easily bigger than the Sargasso station, and there was no telling what he would find once he was within range. That gnawing feeling of danger prepared him for automated turret batteries or defense grids that could take him out before he could get closer, fur bristling as anxious energy surged through every bone in his body.

“What-” he was cut off, comms opening from Wolf who thankfully looked just as shocked as he knew he did.

“The fuck?”

No amount of time in the wars could have prepared them for the large starship floating in front of them, like several ships collided and froze in crystal. Every nerve screamed at him to turn and fly away as fast as possible.

The radar beeped again, a mechanical voice echoing and breaking them out of their stupor. “ _warp signature detected.”_ The two scrambled, splitting and swerving to prepare for the worst from the incoming party. Panther fully expected to see the familiar green lances of plasma flying past them once the onboard V.I informed them that the new ship was in airspace.

Wolf hovered behind an asteroid, the colossal corpse of starships still visible even from the decent distance they had managed to put between them from it. He pulled up the comm channel with Panther, trying not to pay too much attention to the almost manic look in the felines yellow eyes. It didn't take a genius to know that the same expression was plastered across his muzzle as well.

“How could Corneria not know that something like this is just floating around in their flight path?” he managed after making sure that the result of the new warp signature wasn't going to fire on them. He could feel his tail trying to lash underneath him as he worked to come up with a plan.

“It wasn't on the scan the first few passes.” Panther spoke slowly, smoothing his whiskers just as languidly. Wolf crossed his arms over his chest, chewing on his lip as he waited for the cat to finish his thought. “I'm inclined to believe it just exited hyperspace.”

“Without the V.I picking up on it? Let alone the fact that I couldn't see an engine on it at all. Damn thing looked too beat up for any hyperdrive travel either way.” the itching sensation of the puzzle growing more complex drove him mad, scratching at the inside of his skull.

“That's what's not making any sense.” He could see Panther moving holomaps and reading projections around in the cockpit, ears flicking as if trying to hear something far away. For a moment, emerald eyes and golden fur stared back at him through the comm-link, making him gasp and flinch to Panther's confusion. “Are you okay? You've been acting weird since the Baron.” The edge in the feline's voice made his ears instinctively press flat against his skull for a moment before he recomposed himself.

“I'm fine.”

“I don't believe that for a second. If blasting out of the hangar wasn't enough, you spent 5 minutes flying full throttle looking for _something_ that wasn't what we found.” Panther's tone was steel, something he would usually commend him for when faced with the withering glare he was trying to put on. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have right this moment, but the looming threats tied their hands.

“I'll _be_ fine.” For a moment, he could hear the shake in his own voice, the falter at the end of his words telling his teammate far more than he wanted and inciting an anger within him. Those yellow eyes stared right through him, sending a shiver up his spine as Panther read him far better than he had any right to be able to. It was one of the reasons he was his right hand in the team and on Sargasso.

Panther – thankfully – let the topic drop, face softening slightly as he returned to checking readings and leaving them both in silence for a few moments until the feline broke the tension with a shocked look painted on his snout. “It's a Cornerian cruiser that just joined the party.”

Wolf raised his eyebrow, in the middle of rereading the message that sent him off on the Baron. “Think it's the CDF?”

“It's registered to Star fox.”

He could feel something deep inside his mind clawing its way out, desperate to be free.A fleeting memory; one he quashed to try to stem the pain he wasn't ready to deal with and never thought he would be in his life. A conversation slipped free from it's coffin, floating to the surface. He didn't think of the message still lingering in his eyepiece as he stared out at the hulking corpse of debris and the edge of the silvery Cornerian ship – Star Fox's ship.

_**I can't keep doing this. I can't keep waiting on you forever, no matter how much I want to.** _

“ _I know. I don't expect you to. I'm not going to tie you down, Wolf. You deserve better.”_

_**It's not easy.** _

“ _Yeah. If I were you I'd hate me too.”_

_**I don't hate you.** _

He blinked away the rogue trails of red from following behind panther.

**Message Sent.**


	5. Even now I don't want anything but you

Things were quiet. Far too quiet for his liking.

The familiar grip of his blaster weighed heavy in his hand, boots echoing in the empty halls of the massive corpse of ships. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how pieces fit together of the scrapped hulls and hallways, with every corner gone seeming like a whole new obstacle to overcome. Falco's steps followed behind him and then the lighter footsteps of Krystal with the soft clinking of her staff against her belt.

The air felt heavy, as if sticking to his suit as he wedged himself between the wall and a fallen shelf blocking the path to heave it out of the way for his teammates to shimmy through. He tried to not pay attention to the large gashes marring the sides of the hull of every part of the ships they passed through. They made their way deeper, path lit with the dim glow of their tac-lights on their blasters. Fox's ears flicked around in his helmet straining to hear anything besides the quiet groan of steel around them.

He made a motion to stop after a moment, blaster trained on a door cracked open marked 'control'. Two fingers raised, sweeping left then right as they took position behind their leader. Fox slowly pushed the door open, grimacing internally at the rusty squeal that ruined any pretense of stealth. If there was anyone still around on the abandoned ship they would definitely know where they were now. The door swung inward, surprising him with the dim glow of terminals that should have lost power long ago lighting the empty room. Falco swept towards the right wall, Krystal towards the left as he cut through the middle while keeping both in his peripheral. “Room's clear.” Falco called right before Krystal echoed the confirmation.

Fox counted to ten slowly in his head, eyes trained on the only entrance after motioning the other two to keep an eye on any possible entrance points. If they were going to get ambushed now would be the time after their presence was broadcast loudly. His fear never came to light, the halls remained eerily quiet. “What a shitshow.” he could hear Falco mutter, and couldn't help but agree.

Krystal was standing in front of one of the terminals, fingers digging into the sides of her arms as her tail pressed against her leg. Fox made his way over, just enough noise for her to know she wasn't under attack as he stood next to her. A log was left open on the screen, mostly untouched despite the damage to the ship at large. He could barely make out a few familiar symbols, blood boiling as his mind made the connection to the script on the screen and the way his heart raced ten years ago en route to his final battle. Fox couldn't read much of the old venomian script, having almost deliberately forgotten what he had learned in the few briefings they had on the subject during the Lylat wars.

/ _Ship Log 781-C33. Captian...hear...moving.....beast......dead....talking...../_ The rest he just couldn't read, checking some of the other terminals to the same level of success. Krystal didn't move, and he could see her shoulders shaking as she continued to stare transfixed at the screen.

“You okay? Need to get out of here?” He asked, a gentle hand on her shoulder. Falco's eyes bored into the two of them for a brief moment before returning to a lazy guard of the door. Krystal shook her head, seemingly snapped out of whatever trance had taken hold of her.

“No. Just...a remnant.” she spoke after a moment, searching for the words. “Feelings left behind strong enough to linger past ones life.” she continued at the apparent confusion on Fox's face.

He nodded, scanning around the room one last time trying to find something else that could give him a clue as to what happened to this ship to leave it in this dismal state. Finding nothing, he motioned Krystal to follow him as he slipped out of the door once again.

They walked down the ever lengthening halls, the walls seeming to stretch and warp before snapping back to the almost claustrophobic passageways they had gotten used to after the first hour exploring the labyrinthine ship. Noise up ahead caused him to jump slightly, pressing into an alcove as Krystal and Falco followed suit, blasters at the ready. It sounded like footsteps, and dozens of them. _Why would anyone here come running this way now? It's been almost half an hour since we made that much noise._

The heavy footfalls echoed down the hall, coming ever closer as the trio readied for a firefight. Fox's finger curled around the trigger of his blaster, targeting sight activating on his holo-lens. He shifted slightly, back pressed against the edge of the alcove to peek around the corner barrel first and nearly dropped his blaster at what he found – or really what he didn't find. There was no one coming down the halls, even as the echoes of running boots surrounded them and passed. The fur on his tail stood on end, hackles raised as he whipped around to look down the other side of the hallway.

“Did that just...?” Falco appeared at a loss for words, gesturing down the passage they were going and then back towards the control room listlessly. Fox nodded, tail lashing behind him as he tried to piece together what just happened. A hand on his shoulder caused him to jump in his skin before seeing the familiar cobalt of Krystal's gloves with a sigh.

They continued onward, the ship switching from the dark reds and oranges of the Venomian architecture into the greens and teals of Aquassan make. The crystal fusing the seams of the two hulls glowed brightly, a violet hue shifting into an emerald green then to a bright red that set alarm bells blaring in his head. There was a screeching of metal against metal, the walls peeling away suddenly as he tried to reach his teammates ahead of him. “Falco! Krystal!” he was too late, the grinding of metal shutting off his shouts as he was blocked off.

The roar of shifting steel quieted down, leaving only the dull pounding of fists on the other side of the newly formed wall blocking his path forward. “Fox! What happened?” He briefly considered trying to burn a hole through the steel with his blaster, if only out of desperation to not leave his teammates to their own but the rational side of his brain stopped him. _I'd just waste the whole battery and all my spare thermals just to achieve nothing._ He sighed, fist meeting the wall with a clang that rang through the halls.

“I don't know! That crystal stuff lit up then the walls started moving.”

“Did you touch it?” Falco accused him,

“Why would I touch it?! Really?!”

“Falco this isn't the time. We'll try to scout around and see if we can find somewhere that meets up.” Krystal chimed in between their bickering. Fox sighed and nodded, before remembering they couldn't see him.

“Okay. Be careful. Keep the comms channels open. We don't have a layout of this place yet so we need to go slowly.”

“Here I thought it'd be a _great_ idea to just sprint full throttle around this huge place, way to ruin my fun.”

“That's enough Falco.” He sighed, tapping the side of the eyepiece in front of him to open the comm channel.

* * *

Krystal sighed as she walked carefully, the only light available from their flashlights and the subtle glow of their biomonitors as the halls became opressively dark. She could still hear the lingering scraping of steel against steel as Falco kept pace next to her.  
  
The lack of any other emotional signatures besides Falco and – dimly – Fox was unsettling. Between the emptiness and the lingering remnants of the previous crew a pall of unease hung heavily on her mind as the two of them explored. She was grateful that Fox was such a beacon of activity to her senses, allowing him to serve as sort of a marker to make their way towards.   
  
They approached a fork, paths leaving forward, left, and right as she motioned for Falco to wait. He nodded, graciously absent of his usual jokes and crass commentary. She motioned to the left, briskly walking down the hallway with the pheasant hot on her heels.   
  
“So do you think we're getting closer to him?” She felt more than heard him. It was hard to miss the swirling anxiousness and distress coming from her teammate at the simple question. She focused a moment, giving an irritated grunt as Fox only seemed to get further from them with every step. Something was dreadfully wrong with this place, she could feel it in a way far different than her gift. “Dammit what is he doing, sprinting like a madman?”   
  
“After he scolded you for joking about that? We only lost him on comms a few minutes ago. He's bound to notice he can't hear us by now.” She was only trying to reassure herself at this point; the stark absence of his steady, even breathing through the comms was still just as jarring now as it was then.   
  
“Still wouldn't put it past him. He never did well with mazes.” Falco chuckled grimly, anxiousness shifting to worry and, briefly, to dread.   
  
Krystal weighed her words, trying to ignore the way her tail betrayed her own emotion as it lashed about behind her with her own worrying. “Are you suggesting our fearless leader doesn't like a good maze or two?” She went with friendly banter, as it seemed to be what helped the avian make sense of any situation. “You hear that Fox!? Falco thinks you're scared of a kids game!” She shouted down the hallways, throwing caution to the wind. Silence quickly smothered her voice, the halls seeming to swallow the sound like a starving beast.   
  
“Okay that's creepy.” Falco seemed to read her thoughts.   
  
“Quite.”   
  
A low rumbling caused them to freeze in place, the sound like a low growl, like a predator on the prowl. Footsteps clanged against the hull ahead of them, mixed with the sound of scraping of what she assumed to be claws against the metal. A large figure turned the corner, shrouded in shadows that looked like the darkness was dripping like water. Blasters raised and trained on the new figure, Krystal firing the first shot as the bright red plasma screamed through the air. It struck the stranger square in the chest with a whistle from Falco.   
  
“Nice shooting.”   
  
“Stay alert. This thing's bad news.” She could feel nothing from it. A veritable emptiness where the creature stood as oily blackness swallowed the bright burn of the blaster bolt. It lunged forward with startling speed, closing the distance of a handful of yards in an instant.   
  
Falco jumped back, firing two shots into the beast, the heavy bolts searing the air as he gave her just enough of an opening to duck the large claws swinging at her. They grazed overhead, just nearly missing nicking an ear as she pivoted on her heel with an outstretched leg aimed at the back of the creatures legs to take it down. It was like kicking a brick wall, bones rattling in her shin as her attack did nothing to slow the monster. This wasn't a person, not anymore, she told herself as she ducked another swipe and jammed her blaster into the oily thing's side and pulled the trigger three quick times.   
  
The thing swung downward with it's staggeringly large arms, grazing her wrist as she tried to backpedal away from it. Her blaster was wrenched from her hand, clattering to the floor across the hallway as she had to lunge to the side to dodge another swipe of those huge claws. Three long scars marred the hull where she stood, the flash of potential death stunning her a moment too long as those claws came back towards her.   
  
Two more heavy bolts slammed into the creatures wrist with unerring accuracy, slowing the assault down just enough for her to roll under the arm intent on taking her head and to put some distance between her. The staff unclipped from her harness easily, the weight of it comforting in the moment as it hummed with power.   
  
“See if you hadn't yelled we wouldn't be dealing with this.” Falco taunted as he spun around a downward swipe, taking a potshot at the beast as he seemed to dance around the beast. For a moment Krystal realized she hadn't seen the avian fight on foot, before she was forced to sidestep another swing trying to cleave her in two.   
  
The end of the staff struck with a ring, the creature letting out a garbled, pained growl as it lunged at her quickly. She spun, staff whirling and striking quickly where she could leverage as she deftly parried the beast. Despite how long it had been since she held it, the familiar dance of whirl-pivot-swing-lunge-strike flowed quickly back to her body like an old friend. Strike after strike rang out like a clarion call that the fight was shifting in their favor. Falco supported her, striking the creature with lances of crimson to delay it's movements enough to maximize her movements.   
  
With a battle cry she pushed forward, ramming the end of her staff into the creature's maw as it tried to bite down on her with another garbled cry. She pushed forward, hearing the sickening crunch of bone under her struggle as she forced her weapon down it's throat. She twisted the hilt, flare of energy pulsing through the haft and discharging into the beasts maw. A wet gurgling whimper proved the end, as the creature slumped downward, smoking flesh where it's head once set.   
  
“Shit, remind me to never get on your bad side.” Falco chuckled, holding out a wing for a high-five.   
  
“Oh you had plans to do so?” She grinned, heaving with the fleeting adrenaline as she indulged the avian in a small celebration. The uneasy feeling didn't disappate entirely, as if a calm had settled before a storm. A deep chuckle echoed from the halls suddenly, causing her fur to stand on end from the disgusting familiarity with the sound. One glance to the side confirmed Falco's own feelings without her gift. His feathers were puffed up, blaster aimed down the hallway and firing a handful of shots into the darkness.   
  
“You're supposed to be dead, Andross!” He shouted, face contorted in rage and hatred.   
  


* * *

Fox had wandered the shifting halls for almost an hour – to the point that the empty, barren walls seemed to blur together – until he found another door. This one was marked 'engines' in that old Venomian script, but painted the dark grays and stark whites of Katinian ships. He pressed against the doorframe, slowly easing the door open as the expected rusty squeal never came. He ducked down, forcing himself into a lower profile in case there was someone inside, pressing against what seemed to be a large pipe and peeking over to scan the room.

The dark expanse was empty, dull red lighting of abandoned emergency lights barely hanging on after the ships fate. He crept forward, down the stairs towards the engine block and stepping carefully to avoid excess noise. “Guys I've found an engine room.” he whispered into the comms, feeling his heart stop for a moment at the unnatural silence that responded. _Did I somehow get out of range? There's no way we've gone that far._ He was brought back to reality as he tripped over something at the bottom step. Fox caught himself against one of the boiler shafts, hissing as he yanked his hand back once he was steady at the intense heat burning through his gloves despite the defunct status of the ships corpse.

He'd stumbled over a body, laying face down with an oddly familiar flight suit. Adrenaline took over as he rushed over, grabbing the figure with a silent plea. “Please no...” Repeated on whispers as he heaved, pulling the mass over to see their face. Lifeless cobalt blue stared back at him, fur matted by blood over a deep gash in her neck. He recoiled in shock, stepping back with a hand over his muzzle to shut out the sight of his dead teammate.

 _“You did this.”_ Her voice echoed in the room, rattling his bones. His eyes burned, vision blurring as he shut his eyes tight and tried to cover his ears. A few steps backwards to try to get away knocked him over another corpse, red and white flight suit causing him to crawl backwards on his hands to put distance between him and the pheasant. _“You betrayed us.”_ Falcos voice joined in Krystals echo.

Falcos face was mangled, bleached bone exposed on the right side of his face, flesh bubbling and blackened. His beak was dangling from sinew, with the same lifeless eyes that seemed to follow him as he retreated from the avian. _“You left us to go with that scum.”_ The hollow voices were a roar now, rattling his bones as Fox's back pressed into a wall.

He scrambled to try to hide, somewhere the faces couldn't haunt him as he could feel his heart trying to beat out of his chest. _It can't be real. I'd have heard them on comms if they were in trouble. This isn't real!_ His hand brushed against another body, catching gray fur melting into bleached white of bony fingers. Fox jumped away, yelping as his head struck against a pipe jutting out of the wall. Milky violet stared at him, unfazed by the gaping hole in their skull.

“ _At the end of the day, you're useless. Nothing more than a good fuck.”_ the corpse scoffed, letting out a laugh that rang out and struck him like a knife to the gut. His vision blurred further, bright spots flooding what he could see from the impact against the back of his head.

The vulpine scooted further back weakly, trying to block out the high pitched ringing drowning his senses and fight off the tightness in his chest. Weak gasps for air brought little relief, clutching at his chest as the breath was squeezed from him.

The face of the lupine in front of him swirled and shifted, becoming an ape slouched against the wall, facing the stairs as Fox's vision gave out completely.

Darkness filled his sight, a final fleeting thought trying to keep him conscious among the panic and pain.

_Is that all I was to you?_

The last thing he saw before he faded was a notification on his Comms through bright blood red streaks: **3 New messages.**

**W: I don't hate you.**


	6. I will walk the path I've Chosen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay guys. Got swamped with work, life, and a severe lack of inspiration to keep writing due to my own personal issues. New chapter though now!

The shuttle launched from the Cornerian ship and drifted towards the hulking pile of junk. Wolf let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he maneuvered to get a better angle, making a note of the shuttle's entrance point in case he felt the need to explore on foot. Panthers voice on the comms rung out in the cockpit. “Bogeys at 10.” Wolf could feel his blood rushing in his ears as the radar ping showed the handful of fighters approaching, seemingly drawn by the large signature of the ghost ship. He imagined they were after a haul seeing such a massive target.

“Hopefully they haven't noticed the other ship.” he spoke quietly, as if the raiders could hear him over their private comms. He could hear Panther scoff on the line but ignored him. His unasked question quickly answered as the contingent of ships zeroed in on the Cornerian cruiser 'threatening' their ill-gotten treasures. Wolf wasted no time in swinging his wolven around and throttling forward full speed, Panthers warning falling on deaf ears.

_It's the least I can do._ He found himself thinking as he fired a few volleys of bright red plasma towards the clustered group of raider ships. The group scattered, seemingly startled by the sudden blasts sailing past their ships. _Like scattering schools of fish. Amateurs._

A quick pull on the flight stick had him swinging upwards, chasing the first of the raiders closely. A few blaster bolts slammed into the enemy ship, dissipating off shields before the last streak of crimson struck the ship fully and sent it into a spiral towards the edge of the sector.

A few orange lances of energy sailed past him, instinct telling him to dodge downwards and pull back on the throttle as he watched the two bogeys sweep overhead past him. The throttle slammed forward again, full speed as the wolven screamed through the air after them before launching a smartbomb into the raider's trajectory. He didn't stick around to watch if his gambit succeeded, feeling the subtle impact of the detonation through the hull of his ship as he whirled around towards the next dot on his radar.

Wolf's blood rushed, glad to have a good dogfight on his hands but that nagging voice in the back of his head constantly reminded them that they were no good as even a warm up. A quick aileron roll flared the diffuser shields to bounce the stray lucky-shots away from his ship. He swiveled to face the trio of fighters flying towards him, dimly aware of the manic grin plastered on his muzzle as he raced forward towards his next targets.

A bright blue beam pierced through one of the fighters, the ship bursting as it's fuel tanks were struck and depressurized before the shift in pressure burst the craft apart at the seams. Panther gave him a grin over the comms, Black Rose sweeping around to line up his next shot on the other two fighters. “There's a few getting close to Star Fox's ship and it looks like they haven't engaged defenses.” Panther spoke, even as another lance of blue struck right through another of the fighters reeling to recover from the loss of their wingman. Wolf didn't need any more provocation, turning towards the cornerian cruiser and speeding towards the quartet of raiders approaching.

Wolf opened fire, striking a couple of them with his volley meant to distract them from their target. He swerved to avoid the returned fire, dipping down and speeding under the pack before looping over to dive right on top of them. Quick bolts of plasma took down one ship as they tried to scramble to get away from the sudden dive attack, another too late as his ship was peppered with another barrage of fire.

“ _Warp signature detected._ ” His V.I chimed, causing him to veer away from the prey he hunted to avoid any surprises.

“Panther did you catch that?”

“Yes. They must have called reinforcements.”

“Shit. Think we can take them?” Wolf scowled at the countdown his display was showing him until the warp signature finished and the new target popped into space.

“I'm not sure. We're good enough for this rabble, but taking down anything more than a weak frigate would be a challenge.” Panther chose his words carefully, making Wolf bristle at his own mind's implication he took. _We're not like Fox. He can take down the biggest ships just in his arwing._ He fumed quietly, hackles rising as he pivoted mid-boost and swerved towards where his map had pointed out the new ship would be coming out of warp. A plan formed in his mind to prove – to himself more than anyone – that he could take out whatever came his way.

The space distorted around the coordinates he was approaching, signaling the imminent approach of the warp ship. He counted down the seconds in his head, timing himself to the very last second as he launched a bomb right in the spot the ship would emerge. The frigate carrier slipped into space from it's warp, the bomb striking and exploding right against the hull near the hangar bay. It's shields flared to life in emergency response, Wolf slipping right under to fly inches from the surface of the hull. Anti-spacecraft turrets fired on him, as he pitched into a steady spin to activate his deflectors as the bolts bounced off. Heavy volleys of plasma showered those turrets, taking them out one-by-one as he could.

There was another lance of blue from Panther's ship, spreading over the shield as it flickered under the powerful beam. The bright glow of the laser powering up for another shot made Wolf grin as he swept under the frigate to take out the communications array underneath to prevent further backup. There was a rumble through the space nearby, having to yank back on the flight stick to avoid a large chunk of hull that had broken off of the ship from their assault.

The flicker of the shields once again had him grinning ear to ear; the adrenaline of possibly taking out a frigate with just two ships intoxicating as he swooped back around, dodging the remaining batteries of blaster fire. The dish of the radar array swiveled, like a beacon waiting to be doused as his lasers showered into it. Metal seared under the concentrated fire, sloughing away into the emptiness as the space where the dish sat depressurized. Chunks of the ship's inner workings were yanked out of the scar, added to the debris that earned the sector it's nickname.

The frigate pitched hard, a pair of spare fighters sortied far too late as the third spear of plasma slammed into the bubble of the shield. It flickered brightly, straining to hold together before shattering like glass under a hammer. Wolf cheered internally, dodging the two fighters on his six. The ship was destabilized, a few good shots would rip it apart.

“ _Should you really kill all these people?”_ a voice in the back of his head nagged at him. He'd considered the question a moment, dodging another volley of laser fire by dipping around the ship and swinging around now that the shields were down.

“ _They're just minding their own business. You really think you have the right?”_ the voice continued despite his attempts to ignore it. Another fighter down as the other peeled away to try to prevent the same fate. Wolf's hackles raised at the continued nagging from his own head.

“Look if you've got such a problem with it do something to fuckin' stop me.” It was an attempt to shut up the voice in his head as much as a threat to the last remaining fighter from the ship as his lasers tore into the frigate along the starboard hull leaving dangerous welts along it's shell.

“Go to the large ship.” he heard panther speak to him, voice dim as if speaking from a distance as the deafening crack of metal shearing filled the otherwise empty space. He tried to blink out the red lines of his blaster fire from his vision as he swerved around, narrowly missing a collision with the fighter on his tail.

The wolven screamed as he pushed to full throttle towards the husk of dead ships, even as the last handful of fighters tried desperately to follow him to protect the so-called treasure they thought they had rights to. Panther's ship fired another shot at the trio trailing him, making them scatter as he covered for his boss. Wolf made a note to thank him for the distraction, his own head filled with just one thought: _Fox you better be alive in there. I've got a bad feeling about this thing._

* * *

Panther sighed as he watched Wolf tear off towards the husk of dead ships at full speed, disappearing into an open hangar bay and swiveled himself around to face off against the next pair of fighters trying to follow him into the ghost ship. “The things I do for that idiot.” he murmured to himself as he fired off another shot to take out one of the fighters. The V.I beeped at him again with another “ _warp signature detected”_ and he cursed.

The comm line opened quickly. “They got backup.” He didn't wait for a response, swinging around to follow Wolf into the hanger of the ship. He considers for a moment that he may have taken a different hangar entrance than Wolf did, when he didn't see the wolven, before his V.I pinged once more. “Wolf did you cloak your wolven?”

The line was silent, almost painfully so. Anxiety gripped at his chest as he settled the wolven into it's landing gear and activated the cloaking. He made sure that the seal on his helmet was airtight, hopping out of the cockpit and quickly sweeping the bay.

“ _Warp signature resolved.”_ He sighed, quickly finding somewhere to hunker down with a view of the force field protecting him from the vacuum of space.

It didn't take long for the raiders to swoop in, four fighters that looked like they belonged in a scrap yard rather than in flight as they settled into the hangar bay with a scraping screech of metal on metal. Panther pulled his blaster in one hand and the short saber he kept on him in his other.

The first pair of boots hit the ground and he peeked barely around the corner he was hiding behind, seeing the four raiders sweeping the bay just barely managing to avoid bumping into the cloaked wolven. He slowly let out the breath he wasn't aware he was holding, slipping back behind the corner into the shadows and letting his fur blend in with the darkness.

His eyes closed, focusing his mind on the sound of the footsteps, letting his sensitive whiskers and hearing keep him abreast of the raiders – no his prey – as they wandered closer and closer. His fingers tightened around the handle of the saber and the twin triggers of his blaster.

One of the raiders stepped far too close to his hiding spot and the hunt was on. The ease with which his blade sunk through the helmet and the spine of the weasel that had unfortunately invaded his domain would have normally sickened him, but not now. He gave a swipe of the blade, severing vocal cords and preventing the weasel from calling for backup as Panther lowered his body quietly to the ground.

His teammates were none the wiser they had just lost one of their members. They weren't even talking to each other. Their silence was his triumph. He slinked around the corner and crouched under the bannister of the walkway, tail flicking behind him slowly as he stalked his next target.

A coyote peeled around the corner a few yards ahead of him, turning away from him as he looked down a nearby hallway for anyone that shouldn't be there. He aimed his blaster and pulled the second trigger. A cable shot out, whizzing past the unaware canine and snapping to the metal wall behind him. In moments the motor of his grapple whirred and jerked him forward towards the coyote. The blade sliced clean, nearly severing the canine's head from his shoulders before he could utter a sound, and Panther released his hook and rolled to a crouch behind a couple of crates. He grimaced as the body hit the floor.

No use crying over spilled blood or whatever the saying was. He'd already cut their numbers in half, he could handle two unprepared idiots who don't know how to work together. Footsteps ran up the entry ramp, calling out in panic when they found the nearly-headless coyote. He popped out of his cover to fire two heavy lances of bright blue plasma into the chest of the hyena mid-sentence.

Three down, one to go. He slowly crept out of his cover, hearing the last of the small scout party running around in a near-panic. _They're so easy to hunt when scared._ He flicked some of the blood off the saber onto the floor, forming a thin line of bright red. The ferret was trying to run back to his ship. He couldn't have that, couldn't have prey escaping.

The grapple hook whipped through the air, landing square on the ferret's backpack and locking into place. With a brace of his foot on the banister he reeled his catch in like a fish on a line. The ferret's scream sent a thrill through him as he came flying towards him.

His sword sunk easily between the ferret's shoulder blades, right through the heart with surgical precision. Panther's ears flicked in his helmet, drinking in the pained gasps for breath as a man in a desert drinks water. _Nothing better than the thrill of the hunt, I always say. Shame they weren't worth the effort._

His comm snapped him out of his hunt, ears flicking back and forth to clear his head as he dispatched the body off the end of his saber with a dull thud. “Panther everything okay? You didn't respond to anything.”

He took a look at his comms, seeing the few messages from Wolf confirming his location and asking for an ETA on him. “Sorry, Got followed. Four of them. Easy enough. Couldn't survive a hunt.”He couldn't see Wolf's face but he could imagine that usual grimace when thinking of the way the feline hunted. “I didn't see your wolven here. Did we not come in through the same bay?”

“I don't think so. I didn't cloak mine or anything. I should have.” Wolf grumbled before the line suddenly cut out as he started to speak again.

“Wolf?” He sighed, closing his eyes and counting to three before trying the comm line once more. Dead silence met his call. His fur stood on end as the ship creaked around him in a sound not unlike a deep, primal growling.

* * *

_Shit._

Wolf sighed as he lost connection with Panther, the line dropping dead and refusing to reconnect no matter how many times he tried. He looked around the fork in the corridor he was following to make sure there wasn't an ambush waiting for him or another group of raiders that somehow got in before he had. The last few turns were empty as was the one waiting for him here. The lack of any noise other than the groan of the ship's hull made his hackles rise non-stop.

The dark red metals of venomian design had his nerves on edge constantly, a dim reminder of a past he wanted to far distance himself from. His wandering eventually brought him to a door left open a crack, the Venomian script on the door reading _Control._ He pushed it open slowly to a deafening creak that was sure to alert anyone nearby. “Shit!” he grumbled as he only pushed enough for him to squeeze through.

The room was lined with terminals and desks for the old apes that usually ran the large battleships, each surprisingly still buzzing with power despite the derelict state of the rest of the ship. “What's all this then?” He asked aloud, wincing at how loud his own voice sounded in the isolation the husk of ships surrounded him with.

A screen drew his attention, flickering some with text running down the screen compared to the others left on their desktops. Wolf stepped closer and took a look over what file was open.

_/Ship Log 781-C33. Captain Palmer is dead. I can hear him moving still. Shot himself in the head after taking out nearly the whole crew. Everyone's acting like a beast. Everyone I knew is dead or not themselves. I can hear them talking still. Their corpses chatter. This is my last day. The void take me./_

Wolf grimaced, feeling his tail bristle at the words on the log in front of him. _The dead talking? The hell is this weirdo on about?_ He grumbled internally as he turned to look around the room. There was dust on every surface, but one detail caught his eyes. A few fresh boot prints in the dust that weren't his.

His hand palmed his blaster as a creak echoed behind him, echoing in the empty room. He turned to face the intruder to his thoughts and his jaw dropped.

An older lupine stood in front of him, fur around his jaw haggard and scarred. “ _Look at you now. A criminal. You're not my son.”_ His hackles rose, a low growl echoing in the empty room from his chest. His finger instantly pulled the trigger, blaster spitting out a glob of plasma with a crackle of heat. It thudded directly into the older wolf's chest, but didn't seem to leave a mark.

“You're dead, asshole! The fuck do you think you're doing here?” he roared, aware of how much noise he was making if there was anyone else around to find him but unable to find the reason to care. Two more dull thuds of plasma roaring through the room echoed.

“ _Just a worthless criminal.”_ A feminine voice echoed behind him, making him whirl around blaster trained on the new lupine. _“Never going to be as good as your brother.”_ She scowled at him, a familiar look of disgust and contempt. She was good at that.

_This isn't real. They're dead._ The logical side of him argued, trying to worm past the rage and hatred.

“Yeah? And you're a bitch. Worthless parents like you are why I'm like this.” He spat back, pulling the trigger at the she-wolf. The same dull thud that didn't even leave a mark echoed. Movement in his peripheral caught his eye, making him step back away from the two lupines. It was a tiger. His brain briefly pulled up a name, and a memory of a drunken fling.

“ _Just good for booze and sex.”_ the tiger spat out with venom dripping on each word. _“Worthless otherwise.”_

Wolf felt his hackles rise as the three dead people closed in with an echo of _“Worthless.”_ as his eyes flicked around to find an opening to put more space between him and the trio. He slipped between the two wolves, turning to keep them in his sight with his blaster trained on them even as his rational mind reminded him it didn't work.

He felt something hit his back, a familiar smaller frame up against his as he felt arms wrap around his waist. Orange and white fur glistened with fresh wounds against him. _“You never loved me. You could never love anyone. You just ran away when things weren't going your way.”_ It was Fox. The harsh words stabbed right into his chest, an icy pain that he'd never gotten away from.

“Thats...” he couldn't find the words. The room seemed to melt around him, the only thing that mattered is the warmth of the vulpine pressed against his back.

Everything shifted, spinning and blurring until he was facing a familiar scene, his hideout on Corneria. He could see himself sitting on a bed, the sound of a shower running.

“What the fuck?” his words didn't even sound like himself. The memory was as crystal clear as he was seeing it now.

Fox walked out of his bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist. There was a gleam in his eyes as he smiled at Wolf on the bed. _“Shame that movie sucked.”_ he laughed. Not-Wolf chuckled and shrugged.

“ _Better than some of the crap on Sargasso.”_

“ _Jeez I bet. Don't think a band of rogues like the classiest of film.”_

“ _Pft, if it doesn't involve whoring or drugs they don't care.”_ Fox sat next to Not-Wolf on the bed, casually leaning into him. Wolf's chest ached, emptiness replacing the warmth of those hands around him as he was forced to watch.

“ _I still wonder why you still deal with them. You're not a wanted criminal anymore.”_ The conversation always took these turns.

“ _Look pup, You and I both know if someone else was keeping them in line it'd be more trouble for the rest of the galaxy.”_ Not-Wolf sighed, arms wrapping around Not-Fox.

“ _Then just let corneria take them all out? I'm sure the system would be far better without any of them.”_

“ _It's not that easy, pup. There are some things that military Red Tape wouldn't be able to solve fast enough. It's... A necessary evil, so to speak.”_ He still had to agree with his words from back then.

“ _Then work with us? We don't tend to work with the bureaucracy with Peppy in charge.”_

“ _I can't.”_

“ _Why not?”_ Not-Fox's face made him wince.

“ _It's far more complicated than you're thinking right now.”_

“ _So at some point then?”_ Fox's optimisim was always infectious. Even if he could never bring himself to shoot him down he had to admire that steadfast positivity.

“ _...Maybe. Can we change the topic?”_ It never worked. It always came back to his status as a criminal. 

“ _...Fine. We're not done with this though.”_

“ _We never are, pup.”_

“ _You can't keep running away from it. It's going to get you killed, or worse.”_ Not-Fox buried his muzzle in Not-Wolf's shoulder with a sigh. He couldn't hear the words but he knew what he said.

“ _I love you... and I don't want to lose you.”_

“ _I know.”_ He caught himself mouthing along with his doppelganger.

“ _I can't keep doing this, Wolf. I can't keep worrying about you.”_ The scene changed, a balcony in Fox's father's summer home. Everything was ghost-quiet, aside from the burbling of the small stream on the property.

“ _Then don't. We both know I'm not worth it.”_

“ _That's not what I mean, Wolf.”_

“ _I know.”_

“ _You can't keep running away from problems.”_ Not-Fox carried the same cold bite as fresh as the day it happened.

“ _I'm running away from my problems? Says Mister 'I can't commit to anything outside of war' here.”_ Wolf cringed, trying to look away, trying to shake the scene away from his sight. He didn't want to relive this. The pain was too fresh.

“ _What?! I can commit to things.”_ Fox didn't sound convinced then. They had been on-again-off-again in their relationship at this point for a few months. It was always Fox that said he needed space or time or to think things through.

“ _I can't keep doing this. I can't keep waiting on you forever, no matter how much I want to.”_

“ _I know, I don't expect you to. I'm not going to tie you down Wolf. You deserve better.”_

“ _It's not about what I deserve, Fox. I **want** you, but you keep dropping me the second I'm not useful to you.”_

He felt pinpricks of heat at the corner of his good eye. The old wound opened up, the floodgates broken from experiencing the memory once more.

“ _That's... not how it is. You're...”_ the fake Fox fidgeted against the balcony he was leaning against. His tail flicked behind him in a mix of agitation and hesitation. 

“ _It's not easy.”_

“ _I'm sorry. I've got to go to the spaceport in the morning. We should sleep.”_

“ _I'll go then.”_

“ _You don't have to.”_

“ _No need to when you don't want me.”_

“ _That's not...”_ Not-Fox sighed, tail tucked between his legs. _“I know how you felt and I couldn't say no.”_

“ _yeah.”_

“ _Yeah. If I were you I'd hate me too.”_

“ _I don't hate you.”_ He wished he had said more. There was always more to say when he replayed this in his head at night. “ _I love you Fox. Find me when you have your shit together.”_

The room melted away once more, leaving him in darkness with nothing but the groaning of the ships hull to keep him company. He was tired, body numb and buzzing with that familiar dull ache as he laid against the floor. A pair of green pools filled his vision as he closed his eyes, reaching an arm out with the last vestiges of his strength. “Don't die on me Fox.”

The last thing he could feel before darkness took him fully was a firm grip around his wrist, slender fingers tugging him upward.

“Dammit Wolf did you gain weight?”

**Author's Note:**

> So I've decided to to add a little 'easter egg' hunt just for the fun of it. Most of my chapter titles will be lyrics of songs that helped write the chapter or set the mood. Some may be easier to find than others, but comment if you figure out the song and who sings it / where it's from. Try not to google it but I won't blame you!


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